LPRT Battle at the Alamo Recap

Longoria back on top for the first time in months. Photo via US Open 2019, Kevin Savory

Congrats to your LPRT Pro winners on the weekend:

– Singles: Paola Longoria

– U21 Singles: Valeria Centellas

Paola returns to the winner’s circle for the first time in many months, a strange thing to say for someone who has 110 career tier 1 wins and, prior to this year, was a 95% favorite to win.

There was also a healthy Men’s Open Singles and a great Mixed Pro doubles event; read on for recaps.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=40580

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Lets review the notable matches in the Pro Singles draw.

Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/jb3

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In the 32s, no real upsets but a couple of notable results:

– @AAna Gabriela Martínez returned to the tour and downed LPRT vet Nancy Enriquez in two games 6,11.

– #5 Jessica Parrilla was taken to a breaker by the current Mexican 16U champ (and finalist at World Juniors last November) Yanna Salazar . Watch out for Salazar, the next in a long line of promising Mexican junior women.

– #4 @EErika Manila was really pressed by reigning US and World 16U champ @Naomi Ros, playing in her home town. Manilla took the first, 15-7, but Ros powered back to take the 2nd 15-9 and force a breaker. The reigning US champ took the breaker 11-6 but this match was closer than Erika probably wanted. Ros, like Salazar, is poised for a breakthrough.

– #7 @Angelica Barros got a walk-over when Maricruz Ortiz no-showed. That had to be a sigh of relief for the Bolivian; Ortiz took her out with relative ease at PARC in Guatemala earlier this month. I thought this draw opened up for Ortiz and predicted as much in my preview; she misses an opportunity to put some LPRT points on the board.

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In the 16s, we got some great matches and some upsets.

– #1 Paola Longoria held serve against a top rival in Gaby, grinding out a 13,14 win. Gaby made a furious come-back attempt in game 2, coming back from 8-14 down to tie it, but Paola held on for the 2-game win.

– #8 @Carla Munoz got a very solid win over a top rival in #9 @Kelani Lawrence in a breaker to move into the quarters for the 4th time in 8 tourneys this year.

– #12 Maria José Vargas “upset” #2 Parrilla to move on; this was an expected win for the come-back Vargas; question is, how far back up the rankings can Vargas get with the newly vulnerable Longoria on her heels?

– #4 Manilla took out her fellow team USA mate Hollie Scott in two, a match that will help solidify Manilla’s seeding ahead of US Nationals.

– #14 Valeria Centellas got her best career win in topping #3 Alexandra Herrera . After exploding onto the scene in 2019, Centellas has struggled to get out of the 16s, but this win ensures her 3rd quarterfinal of the season.

– #11 Brenda Laime trounced #6 Natalia Mendez 7,6 to move on. Laime continues to be a dark-horse whenever she enters an event, with recent wins this season over Longoria, Herrera, Manilla, and now Mendez.

– #10 Samantha Salas made fast work of #7 Barrios to move into the quarters for the 91st time in her illustrious career.

– #2 Montse Mejia , who is on a 21 match win streak as of this round, made fast work of Colombian @Cristina Amaya to reach the quarters.

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In the Quarters, some bracket busting.

– #1 Longoria dropped the first game to #8 Munoz (the first time in 21 meetings where Carla had taken a game off of Paola), then the champ ground out game 2 before turning the tie-breaker into a romp.

– #12 Vargas continued her comeback with a dominant 3,6 win over #4 Manilla. The two play a similar game … Vargas just plays it better right now.

– #11 Laime continued her run, ending Centellas’ weekend despite her big win.
– The big result; #2 Mejia goes down against the veteran #10 Salas.

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In the Semis:

– Longoria turned the tide against Vargas, to whom she had lost two in a row, by grinding out a tie-breaker win.

– Laime took out Salas 11,11 to make her second ever pro final.

In the Finals, despite having a h2h win over Longoria earlier this season, Laime just seemed overwhelmed by the opportunity and Longoria crushed her 7,3 to claim the title.

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Points Implications of results

For months i’ve been saying this title was Mejia’s to lose … and i’m still right, but this weekend’s results definitely closed the gap between the players. Longoria may hold a 400+ point advantage right now in the rolling 365-day standings, but Mejia’s ahead in season to date points. However, she squandered a huge chunk of her S-T-D points lead this weekend by losing in the quarters … and now the two players are nearly tied for the season. I have Montse with just an 11 point lead before the fractional points that the players get for winning an extra game here and there. Suddenly the last two events take on even more import. Simply put, Mejia cannot afford another early round loss to an opponent she should be beating if she wants the title.

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Other Draws. There was no LPRT doubles, but we did get several other interesting draws in San Antonio.

– LPRT U21: touring pro Centellas topped three fellow U21 players to take the LPRT U21 draw without losing a game. She beat USA National team member @Annie Robert in the final 9,4. A solid weekend for the Argentine.

– Men’s Open: the Men’s “Open” draw featured two top-8 IRT pros, seemingly in violation of their player contracts unless there was some sort of deal made with the tour, and the Texas fans got some fireworks on and off the court.

Two Texans both stretched the top two seeds @Daniel De La Rosa and Alejandro Landa to tiebreakers in the quarter finals; Brendan Jennings took the first game 11 before falling 5,5. Meanwhile US Junior National team member @Cole Sendry gave #2 Landa everything he could handle, taking game one, diving all over the court and pushing the tie-breaker to 11-7. There were both on- and off-the-court issues here that may have ramifications for the senior member of the US Team; we’ll leave the commentary at that for now.

After the fireworks in the quarters, the rest of the draw went chalk, with DLR downing Christina Longoria with ease and Landa cruising past #3 @Alan Natera in two fast games to setup the expected final. In the final…DLR dropped the first game 14 to his US National doubles team partner before turning on the jets to win games 2 and 3 for the title and the cash.

– Mixed Pro: a great Mixed Pro Doubles draw featured 8 of the top 10 LPRT pros playing with a slew of IRT and other top players battled it out for an upset-filled Mixed draw.

In the end, #3 seeds and Husband/Wife Duo Natera/Munoz took the title over #1 Landa/Vargas in two close games.

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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Timothy Baghurst, Jerry J Josey Jr., and @Tj Baumbaugh] Also thanks to the excellent commentary from guest announcers like Richard Eisemann and Sandy Rios all weekend.

Thanks to the Tourney Director Mike Cantu for putting this event on!

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Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…/

The LPRT is right back in action, with the tour flying to South Carolina for their annual Sweet Caroline grand slam in Greenville, SC, home of the Ladies pro hall of fame.

That will be the last event that players have to secure seeds ahead of the 2023 US National Singles team qualifier in Chicago at the end of the month. The Men’s pros have a satellite in Costa Rica in June, but otherwise have nothing official until Denver’s event in August.

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tags

LPRT

LPRT Battle At the Alamo preview

Can Vargas do another run? Photo US Open 2019 Kevin Savory

The LPRT returns to San Antonio for the first time since 2019, having taken the requisite Covid break and then just missing 2022. Prior to that, the Battle at the Alamo was a staple for nearly a decade on tour and I’m sure the ladies are glad to be back. The draw size reflects that, with enough players to push to a ro und of 64, the first time we’ve seen an LPRT draw that large outside of the US Open since the last Denver major. So that’s great news, and there’s a great draw here.

Tournament Director Mike Cantu has also gotten significant prize money to fund big-time Mixed draws and Men’s open draws, so more than a few IRT regulars are here to play Open and Mixed.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/tourney/home.asp?TID=40580

The entire top 10 is here, and only a couple non-retired players are missing out of the entire top 20 (Lotts and MRR), so get ready for solid matches from the get-go.

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Round of 32 notable match-ups: Here’s what to look for early thursday:

– In the 16/17 @GabGaby Martínez matches up with Nancy Enriquez in a good early test.

– Fresh off a win at the Asia Open, Argentine Martina Katz makes the long, long flight to Texas to face off against #9 Kelani Lawrence .

– #11 Brenda Laime takes on US intercollegiate champ Annie Roberts in the opener.

– Not for the first time, both members of the Colombian national team @Cristina Amaya and partner @Maria Paz Riquelme have to play in the opening round of a pro event.

– Lastly, the match of the round has to be Costa Rican rising star @Maricruz Ortiz against #7 seed Angelica Barrios . Ortiz just beat Barrios at the PARC event two weeks ago en-route to a semis appearance, but that was IRF and rally scoring. This is the pro tour and a different vibe; can she repeat the win? I think she’s a bad matchup for Steffany and can get another big win here.

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Round of 16:

– #1 Paola Longoria , the embattled long-time #1 who’s taken more losses this year than in the last decade combined, cannot be happy seeing Gaby in her round of 16 match. Longoria should move on, but Gaby has beaten her in the past and will look to take advantage of Longoria’s recent slide.

– The 8/9 Lawrence – Carla Munoz match is a rematch at this juncture from a pro event in November, a 3-game Kelani win. Can she repeat the task or can Munoz reverse the trend on her season so far?

– #5 Jessica Parrilla is the unlucky recipient of the @JMaria José Vargas comeback tour; Vargas is now up to #12 after taking maternity leave and has been dominating since her return. Look for Vargas to get the “upset” here and make more waves.

– #4 Erika Manilla projects to face her former doubles partner @Hollie Scott in the 16s for the second time this year; the first time was a dominant 6,6 win that portends well for Manilla in next month’s US Singles National team qualifiers. This is a possible semis or finals preview of Nationals and both will be looking for an advance scouting report on the other.

– #3 Alexandra Herrera projects into Valeria Centellas, who just can’t seem to capture the flash of brilliance she showed back in 2019-2020 and has been mired in the mid-teens ever since.

– Laime – @Natalia Mendez is a great round of 16 match between two players who both flash top-4 talent. They have not met since June of 2021, and Mendez owns all three h2h wins.

– If Ortiz can get past Barrios, she projects into an old guard vet in Samantha Salas who plays a similar power game, a match that could be close. But I’d favor Ortiz’ chances to move on.

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Projected Qtrs:

– #1 Longoria over #8 Lawrence. Paola is 7-0 lifetime over Kelani.

– #4 Manilla vs #12 Vargas: match of the round. These two heavyweights both play power ball (they were #1 and #3 at last year’s radar gun challenge). They have not met since 2014 in any format. Who’s hot and who will handle the pressure better? My money is on Vargas to win a close one and build on her great results since coming back.

– #3 @Alexandra Herrera over #6 Mendez: the lefty is 10-1 lifetime over Natalia.

– #2 @Montse Meja Lopez against Ortiz; Mejia should end the run of the Costa Rican junior here, but good things are on the horizon for Maricruz.

Semis:

– #12 Vargas over #1 Longoria. After starting her career just 2-41 against Longoria … Maria Jose has beaten her twice running, once at the Arizona stop in February and then at PARC earlier this month. Vargas seems to have moved past whatever mental block she had versus Paola, and I think she wins again.

– #3 Mejia over #2 Herrera; Mejia has one four tourneys on the trot, and has beaten her long-time doubles partner four times in the last calendar year across multiple competitions. Montse has her number and wins again.

Finals: I think Mejia has figured things out, has beaten Vargas twice this year already (finals in AZ, then finals in PARC), and is in the driver’s seat on tour right now. Mejia wins the title for her 5th straight and virtually guarantees she ascends to #1 by season’s end.

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Doubles Preview: no pro doubles this weekend, the first time in I can’t remember how long the LPRT hasn’t had a doubles component. Instead we’ll get big money in the Men’s Open singles and Mixed doubles, and should have some fun draws there.

There is a U21 singles draw accompanying the main pro draw though, and it features 10 up and coming players. I really like these U21 draws, which give a second chance at cash to younger players. I like Ortiz over Katz in this one, with Roberts and Centellas in the semis.

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Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the LPRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live.

Look for Timothy Baghurst, Jerry J Josey Jr., and Tj Baumbaugh on the mike, calling the shots!

Reminder to Players! Please like and follow this page so that when I tag you, you see it. Facebook will only retain tags of people that like/follow a page, which means lots of you are not getting the notoriety of getting tagged and noticed on Facebook. If your name is here and it isn’t tagged … it probably means I attempted to tag you but Facebook stripped it.

Coincidentally, if you’re interested in playing Fantasy Racquetball for this event, the links to the brackets are advertised on LPRT’s main page. The winner each week gets free swag!

Associations

LPRT

IRT SoCal Open Recap

Jake wins his 2nd ever IRT title. Photo unknown circa 2018

Congrats to your winners on the weekend:

– Singles: Jake Bredenbeck

– Doubles: @Daniel De La Rosa and @Alejandro Landa

Bredenbeck beats #1 and #2 to claim his second career IRT title. Landa and DLR win their first title together since claiming the US National crown in February.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=41100

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Lets review the notable matches in the Singles draw.

Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/fz9

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In the 32s: the move to a non-qualifying draw continues to show its impact. Of the nine round of 32 matches competed, four of them could only be described as complete blow outs, finishing with score-lines of 2&0, 2&1, 5&1, and 0&1. Even those which didn’t finish in 15 minutes were generally not competitive, featuring single game scores in the low single digits. Only one tiebreaker in the entire play-in round, when #11 Jaime Martell was pushed to a breaker by #22 @Oscar Elias Nieto.

Lower-ranked players: are you still sure you want a non-protected draw?

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In the 16s, just one upset by seed and really only a couple of competitive matches as the IRT starts to get really chalky.

– #11 Martell upset #6 @Alejandro Landa 14,12. Landa was recovering from a couple of simultaneous injuries suffered in an IRT match earlier this season and the Opportunistic Martell took advantage.

– The only other close match in the 16s was #2 Daniel De La Rosa grinding past #15 Sam Bredenbeck 7,12.

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In the Quarters, we saw some solid ball.

– #1 @Conrrado Moscoso , who could not lose #1 unless he lost in the first round, cruised past the #8 seed Alan Natera .

– #5 Rodrigo Montoya continues his recent dominance over #4 Andree Parrilla , beats him for the 5th straight time in all competitions to move into the semis. With this win, Montoya should ascend into the top 4 on the IRT for the first time.

– #3 Jake Bredenbeck raced past the upset-minded Martell 11,2 to move into the semis for the 5th time in six tournaments this season, after having made a grand total of 5 pro semis in his entire career prior.

– #2 De La Rosa moved past the lefty Adam Manilla 12,6 to setup a critical meeting against Jake that has significant ramifications both for the pro tour and for USA national rankings as we approach National singles.

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In the Semis

– Moscoso and Montoya had their customary “nothing between them” first two games, splitting it 14 one way and 13 the other, before Conrrado ran away with the tiebreaker to move into the final.

– In the bottom half, pundits (ahem, me) thought DLR would advance into the final like he normally does over Jake (he’s 13-2 lifetime against Bredenbeck and has owned him this whole season). Jake had other plans, taking game 1, getting a huge lead in the breaker and holding off a comeback attempt to take the semi and advance into the final.

In the Finals, another upset as Jake took out Moscoso in two straightforward games to get his first ever win over the Bolivian and claim his second title after taking Portland in December. Jake played solid, calm, tactical power racquetball to take out the world #1. A well earned win.

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Points Implications of results:

We’ve alluded to the expected changes above, but we’re seeing some major movement with these results:

– Thanks to Jake’s replacing last year’s round of 16 loss in SoCal with a win here, he will supplant De La Rosa easily for #2 on tour. What a great achievement for Jake, who many thought would be mired in the 7-10 range as a peak for his career.

– Montoya will jump over both Parrilla and the missing Eduardo Portillo and moves into the coveted #4 spot. He’ll continue to project into Moscoso in the semis, and may very well continue to face his long-time nemesis Parrilla in the 4/5 spot in the quarters, but he’s now in position to put some points on the board.

– Manilla should move up to #8 spot.

– Murray drops to #9 and with his latest injury is in serious jeopardy of dropping out of the top 10 for the first time since 2016.

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Doubles review

Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/zc9

This tournament marked the triumphant return of Alvaro Beltran to the tour after months away, and also marks a new pathway forward for Beltran. For a while, he has been hinting at retiring from playing singles but still wanted to play doubles. However, his long-time doubles partner De La Rosa has been forced to find new partnerships in his absence.

Since Alvaro’s injury, DLR has played with @Kadim Carrasco (semis loss in Florida), Sebastian Fernandez (semis loss in Austin), @javier Mar (a win in the Lewis Drug), Landa ( a win at US nationals, then a Finals loss in Atlanta before this weekend), and then with Moscoso (a loss in Minnesota). Suffice it to say, DLR needs a regular partner. Has he found one in Landa? Maybe so; he and Landa eased into the final by topping Chicago’s champs Parrilla and Manilla in the semis.

There, they met … DLR’s old partner Beltran, who teamed with Montoya this week in Mar’s absence and got a very solid win over the PARC finalists from Bolivia Moscoso & Carrasco to get t here.

In the final, the former partners showed little good will towards each other in a tight, testy match that belied the existence of some tension between the long-time partners. In the end, DLR and Landa took the title, their first since taking US Nationals in February, though Beltran made his normal array of fantastic shots.

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Other notable draws.

In the Men’s Open, Trujillo (who curiously forfeited his pro match) took out for fellow Mexicans in a row (Sanchez, Nieto, Ortega, and Longoria) to take the Men’s Singles Open title.

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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Favio Soto, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew . thanks to Brian pineda for coming out of broadcasting retirement to make it happen this weekend.

Thanks to the Tourney Director @Favio Soto and for Keith Minor as always for your continued support of the sport. I’m not sure we have pro racquetball right now without KWM Gutterman and Minor.

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Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…/

Next weekend the LPRT is back in action for the first of two back to backs, in San Antonio and then their Grand Slam in Greenvile, SC. The IRT has had several events fall through and now doesn’t have a tier 1 again until the big event in Denver, which may very well feature the return of Kane Waselenchuk .

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tags

@kwKwm Gutterman

International Racquetball Tour

IRT SoCal Open Preview

Carso returns to the tour. how far can he go? Photo Portland 2019 via Kevin Savory

Welcome back! It’s been a month since the last IRT event, but it seems like forever since the Men’s pro’s were in action. But they’re back, in Southern California.

r2sports home page: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=41100

Perhaps its a hangover effect from the PARC, but this event is missing a ton of regulars. #4 Lalo, #8 Murray (who got injured in Guatemala), #10 Acuna are not here; these guys rarely miss an event. Plus a big chunk of the 11-14 ranked guys conspires to give Natera a #8 seed here, by far his highest ever pro seed. (note: post publishing JTRBall tells us that both Lalo and Acuna are at the Asia championhships).

A total of 28 players here, down from 42 players at this same event this same weekend last year. This continues a troubling trend on the IRT, which seems to have lost a third of its players in the last year.

Daniel De La Rosa won this event last year, so he’s defending full winner’s points. Meanwhile Moscoso lost in the quarters and will likely gain ground on his top rival DLR for the #1 spot after the weekend.

Lets go through the draw, see what may happen with so many top players out.

round of 32:

– @Rocky Carson is back, playing on tour for the first time in months in his home town. He faces local junior Cody Elkins in a round of 32.

– Jaime Martell takes on fellow Mexican Neito Oscar.

– #6 Alejandro Landa , fresh off not going to PARC, gets to play a name we havn’t heard in a while, former Japanese international Hiroshi Shimizu . Shimizu has pro results dating back to 2001-2, nearly as long as Rocky.

– in the 15/18 match, Sam Bredenbeck takes on Mexican youngster Jesus Guillermo Ortega in a match that could be closer than expected.

In the 16s, the top 4 seeds join the action. Matches of note for me:

– Rodrigo Montoya projects to face Carson and probably ends his return to the tour early.

– Landa projects to face his old WRT rival Martell.

– #7 Adam Manilla versus #10 Erick Trujillo is probably the most interesting match of the round. A good test for Trujillo to see if he can get by the crafty lefty.

Projected qtrs:

– #1 Conrrado Moscoso takes out Natera

– #4 Andree Parrilla faces his nemesis #5 Montoya, who has taken over their h2h lately. Montoya wins again and moves on.

– #3 Jake Bredenbeck projects to face #6 Landa in an intriguing match. Last time they played, Landa cruised past Jake at the 2022 USA National singles event to take the qualifier spot. But, since then Jake has really turned things around. What happens here? This is likely a preview of a match that happens in May with a spot on the US team on the line.

– #2 DLR projects to face Manilla, another possible May USA nationals match. DLR moves on.

Semis:

– Moscoso may be #1, but he has the harder semi against Montoya, a player who has proven time and again he can beat the Bolivian. These two met at this juncture in Chicago and it was a 14,14 win for Conrrado. What happens here? Coin flip, but i think Moscoso is on a roll after dominating the PARC event.

– DLR vs Jake. they keep running into each other at this juncture … and Jake keeps pressing the action but falling short. I see an other DLR TB win.

Final: DLR tops Moscoso. I think the jet setting catches up to Moscoso and DLR defends his title.

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Doubles preview:

The big news, as announced on Sudsy Monchik ‘s show last Sunday, is the return of Alvaro Beltran to the court. He has not played professionally since injuring his elbow in the Vegas 3WB tournament last October.

He’s paired with Montoya, whose regular partner @javier Mar is not here. They’re the #1 seeds; can they run the table?

They’ll face stiff competition from the top half of the draw, which features PARC champs Moscoso & Carrasco, who will have to get by the Bredenbeck brothers before taking on the Mexicans for a spot in the final. We’ll see how Beltran is doing quickly, as their opponents will be testing Alvi’s stamina.

From the bottom half, the #2 seeds Parrilla and Manilla have had some fast success together, but will have to get by the newly crowned USA national team pairing of DLR/Landa.

I’m looking at Team Bolivia versus team USA in the final, with DLR/Landa getting the win

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Look for Streaming starting at 7pmEST/4pmPST on the regular channels

2023 PARC Recap

Moscoso powers Bolivia with two titles and a third final. Photo US Open 2019, Photographer Kevin Savory

The 34th annual Pan American Racquetball Championships tournament is in the books. Here’s a recap of the action, along with links for the results as entered into the Pro Racquetball Stats database.

Congratulations to the winners:

Men’s Singles: Conrrado Moscoso , Bolivia

– Women’s Singles: Montse Mejia , Mexico

– Men’s Doubles: Rodrigo Montoya and Eduardo Portillo , Mexico

– Women’s Doubles: Alexandra Herrera and Montse Mejia, Mexico

– Mixed Doubles: Conrrado Moscoso & Angelica Barrios , Bolivia

It was quite the weekend for Moscoso, winning Mens singles and mixed and losing in the finals of Men’s Doubles, but it wasn’t quite enough to prevent Mexico from winning the overall combined team title. Mejia got the double Singles and doubles, and the Mexico mixed team making the final just put them over the top to win the Combined team.

Pro Racquetball Stats DB match results. Click on these links to see the match results in the DB:

– Men’s Singles: http://rb.gy/4m4j8

– Women’s Singles: http://rb.gy/cvs9h

– Men’s Doubles: http://rb.gy/u2f40

– Women’s Doubles: http://rb.gy/ii02g

– Mixed Doubles: https://rball.pro/9bz

Team Competition Results

Note: I do not yet have the full team results entered into the DB, but per blog posts we have gleaned the following standings:

Combined Team (Overall)

1st – Mexico

2nd – Bolivia

3rd – Argentina

4th — USA

Men’s Team

1st – Bolivia

2nd – Mexico

3rd – USA

4th – Argentina

Women’s Team

1st – Mexico

2nd – Argentina

3rd – Bolivia

4th – Guatemala

Mexico back on top in combined after finishing 2nd to Bolivia at last year’s PARC. 4th place overall is tied for the worst ever USA overall finish, and the Women finished5th. Definitely a disappointing result for team USA, and I believe these finishes cost the US some spots in the upcoming Pan Am Games.

Let’s run through the individual draws and talk about notable results.

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Men’s Singles:

There were no real surprises in the Round Robin stage of the Men’s singles; all the expected 1st place finishers finished first and I saw no real upsets. This led to a pretty true knockout stage draw.

In the knockouts, Canadian #1 Samuel Murray had to forfeit out, which thinned the bottom half of the draw a bit. The biggest “upset” in the quarters was Argentinian Diego García taking out USA #4 seed Thomas Carter, though Garcia’s results on tour lately made this a predictable result.

In the quarters, Garcia continued his run, taking out IRT top 4 player Portillo in a five game battle. It was chalk from the bottom, as #2 @Jake Bredenbeck and #3 Moscoso advanced to the semis without much trouble.

In the semis, #1 seed @Carlos Keller Vargas advanced to the finals over Bolivian-born but converted Argentine Garcia by the astounding score of 21-19 in the 5th. What an epic battle. From the bottom, Moscoso downed his familiar IRT pro rival Jake in 3 straight to get to the final.

The final was an all-Bolivian affair, a rematch of the Bolivian nationals that Keller surprisingly took earlier this year to ensure he was the top seeded Bolivian in this draw. Moscoso took three close games from his long-time teammate 8,9,9 to win the title. It is Moscoso’s 4th IRF title and third IRF major title (2023 PARC, 2022 Worlds, 2022 PARC), further solidifying his claim to being the best player in the world. See http://rb.gy/svvs1 for all Moscoso’s titles.

Women’s Singles:

As with the men, no real surprises in the group stage, which featured a couple of all LPRT top 10 matchups that went basically along LPRT ranking lines.

The Knockout round featured a break out performance and a ton of upsets.

– #17 seed Costa Rican Maricruz Ortiz shocked the tournament by ousting #1 seed and defending PARC champion Angelica Barrios in the round of 16. A shocking upset by seed, but perhaps not so shocking for those who have watched Ortiz’ transformation lately as a player.

– #6 Mejia took a second win over #11 Erika Manilla after the two top 4 LPRT pros also met in the RR stage. This is one of the downsides of IRF’s seeding methodology, leading to a match that should have happened in the semis happening in the 16s and thus badly impacting team USA’s chances in the overall standings.

– Bolivian Yazmine Sabja Aliss got a solid win over LPRT top 10 player Carla Munoz to move into the quarters.

In the quarters, Ortiz continued her run with another win over a top LPRT pro, beating Colombian Cristina Amaya in a 5-gamer. Meanwhile, Maria José Vargas put another stake of doubt in the current status of world #1 @Paola Longoria , beating her in five games to give Longoria her earliest international loss since the 2006 Worlds (when Paola was a month past turning 17). See http://rb.gy/hzzal for a full list of Longoria’s IRF losses, which total just 11 over a nearly 20 year career.

Mejia topped her second top-4 talent player in a row, beating #3 @AAna Gabriela Martínez in four, while Argentina’s Natalia Mendez took out Sabja in a battle of Bolivian-born players.

The semis gave us some normalcy, as the two expected players Vargas and Mejia advanced, and then Mejia took a 3-game close final 8,6,9 to claim the title. This is Mejia’s first ever international title.

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Men’s Doubles.

The Men’s doubles draw was almost entirely chalk, with no real surprises in the RR stage and a grand total of one upset by seed through the knockout stage. That upset was #5 team USA and the Bredenbeck brothers taking out #4 Team Ecuador in three quick games. Otherwise this was a coronation of team Mexico and team Bolivia blowing through the draw to meet in the final. In that final, Rodrigo Montoya won his 4th major international title with partner Portillo over the Bolivian national champions Moscoso and Kadim Carrasco .

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Women’s Doubles:

The Women’s doubles RR gave a couple of surprises, especially team Guatemala (Gaby Martinez and Maria Renee Rodriguez ) taking out the pre-tournament #1 seeds from Argentina Mendez and Valeria Centellas to claim the #1 seed in the knockouts. They held serve all the way to the finals, taking out team Bolivia in the semis and team Chile in the quarters from the top-side.

From the bottom half, team Mexico (Alexandra Herrera and Mejia), which is largely now considered the best doubles team in the world, cruised through the draw without dropping a game en route to the title. This is Mejia’s first ever IRF title, and Herrera’s third.

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Mixed Doubles

This is just the third IRF event to host a Mixed doubles title, and Rodrigo Montoya has been in the final of all three. This time however, he came out on the losing end, as Moscoso earned the double for the weekend by combining with Mixed partner Barrios to win the title over #1 seed Team Mexico and its star-studded pairing of Montoya & Longoria.

It is a rare feat to beat Longoria in doubles internationally; she’s now a combined 104-6 in 15 years of competing internationally. But Moscoso and Barrios did it.

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Congrats to the International Racquetball Federation for another successful event. Thanks to the IRT streaming crew and @Pablo Fajre for streaming, and thanks to @Gary Mazaroff and all his co-announcers for their hard work all week.

Next up on the IRF calendar is the Central American & Carribean games in July, then the big one: Pan Am Games in Chile in October.

Outdoor Cup Series 2023 Standings

Hollie Scott takes the lead in the LPL Financial cup series after Beach Bash. Photo from 2020 3WB via Steve Fitzsimons

The Cup Series is back for 2023; this is a year-long competition that captures the best performances in the three Outdoor Majors (Beach Bash in March, Outdoor Nationals in July, and 3WallBall in Vegas in September) and gives out prizes at the end of the season. This year’s prize pool features cash prizes to the top two finishers along with a complementary suite stay at The STRAT hotel in Las Vegas.

The cup series for the Women is sponsored for the second year in a row by LPL Financial ’ Rosco Halsey and Jason Hupp . The cup series for the Men is sponsored for the second year in a row by Kwm Gutterman and Keith Minor . Thanks to both parties for your continued support of outdoor Racquetball.

The first major is in the books, so let’s take a look at who’s in the lead.

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Women’s LPL Financial Cup Series Standings, Post Beach Bash

Here’s the current top 5 after Beach Bash:

1 Scott, Hollie

2 Sotomayor, Veronica

3 Herrera, Alexandra

4 Lawrence, Kelani

5 Roehler, Aimee

Hollie Scott takes a commanding lead of the Cup Series after a dominant performance in Florida, where she took home both Women’s and Mixed doubles titles and finished second in the Pro Singles. Thanks to the size of the Mixed draw, her title there was weighted more heavily and propelled her to the top. Veronica Sotomayor , who had never played outdoor before, had a fantastic debut in Florida, taking the singles title over Scott and finishing runner-up in Women’s doubles. She sits in the second spot. Top ranked LPRT pro Alexandra Herrera made the Mixed final and the pro women’s doubles semi final to secure third place. Rounding out the top five are Women’s pro doubles champ Kelani Lawrence and Hall of Famer Aimee Roehler (pro doubles finalist with Sotomayor).

Expect to see some changes in this top five though, as the second leg in California features spacious three wall courts and has not generally seen east coasters like Roehler and Sotomayor make the trip.

For the full LPL cup standings, go to this Google spreadsheet here: https://rball.pro/0b1

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Men’s KWM Gutterman Cup Series Standings, Post Beach Bash

Here’s the current top 5 after Beach Bash:

1 De La Rosa, Daniel

2 Mar, Javier

3 Carson, Rocky

4 Sostre, Robert

5 Monchik, Sudsy

@Daniel De La Rosa takes a commanding lead and is the favorite to repeat as Cup champion. He entered three and won divisions in Florida, and takes maximum points. Javier Mar sits in second on the back of being DLR’s doubles partner for the win. Rocky Carson surprisingly sits in third place; he did not enter Singles or Mixed in Florida and was upset early doubles, but got the win in the large CPRT division. Hall of FamerRobert Sostre sits in fourth with a final’s appearance in pro doubles and semis in two other divisions. And surprisingly in 5th place is a relative newcomer to Outdoor @Sudsy Monchik , who entered just one division (CPRT) but won it, and now has an outside chance at moving up were he to compete in the next two outdoor events.

For the full LPL cup standings, go to this Google spreadsheet here: https://rball.pro/3×8

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Thanks as always to the team at 3Wall Ball and @Mike Coulter for your commitment to outdoor and your continued support of the pros.

Next leg will be in July at the big daddy of them all, Outdoor Nationals. We’ll have coverage of that event and we’ll follow it up with another recap of the cup series rankings after the Marnia Park event.

IRF 2023 PARC Knockout Stage Preview

Welcome to the first International Racquetball Federation (IRF) event of the 2023 season, the 34th installment of the Pan American Racquetball Championships (PARC). This year’s event is being held in Guatemala City and serves as a qualifier into the 2023 Pan Am Games later this year in Chile. The Pan Am games, lest I remind you, are the highest international level competition our sport has in the absence of being in the Olympics, and thus these games take on additional import.

r2sports home page for the brackets and match times: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=40828

We’re through the round robin stages and have the knockouts set, so its a great time to do a preview.

Seeding for these events is done on a sliding scale of the country’s past performances and is not specific to a player, which is why you’ll see some odd seeding in the singles especially (#1 LPRT pro Paola Longoria seeded 5th, for example), and will make for some good early round match ups.

Here’s a look at open-level knock outs for singles, doubles and mixed.

Men’s Singles:

USA and Bolivia players own the top 4 seeds in the knockouts, which gives both advantages to get to the latter stages at the expense of the top Mexican and Canadian players.

The round of 16 may see some upsets:

– Both Costa Ricans are set to play each other in the 16s, a bummer for Andres Acuna and @Gabriel Garcia

– Upset watch: #13 Argentine @Diego García has the firepower to take out #4 Thomas Carter .

– Looks like Canada on Canada crime as #6 Samuel Murray projects to face his #2 Trevor Webb .

Projected quarters:

– #1 @Carlos Keller Vargas , who gets the #1 seed by virtue of his topping Moscoso in Bolivian Nationals a couple of months ago, projects to face Costa Rica’s Acuna. This is a coin flip for me; Keller generally plays really well internationally so i’ll favor him, but Acuna is more battle tested lately.

– #5 Eduardo Portillo vs #13 Garcia: Portillo should move on here but Garcia is an unknown to tour players and could forge an upset.

– #3 Conrrado Moscoso versus #6 Murray: I’m unsure if this match will occur b/c reportedly Murray dinged his knee during group play. This may be a walkover, or this may be another Canadian, or this could be the winner of Webb/Espinosa in the earlier round. Either way, Moscoso is favored.

– #2 @Jake Bredenbeck vs #7 Andree Parrilla ; , a pro semis-quality match that we’ve already seen on tour a couple times this year. Jake has the upper hand over Andree right now.

Projected Semis:

– Portillo over Keller. Lalo is just a better player right now than either Keller or Acuna and should move into the final.

– Moscoso over Jake: Its a lopsided draw; the bottom half is just so much deeper than the top. I’d have liked to see this as a final (as we saw in the last IRT event), but we’ll get it here.

Final: Moscoso over Portillo. Moscoso is hyper focused on international titles and gets one here.

Women’s Open knockout preview:

Thanks to some really tough RR matchups, we’re going to have some bang-up round of 16 matches in the Women’s draw.

In the 16s:

– #1 @AnAngelica Barros taking on Costa Rican up and coming Junior @Maricruz Ortiz , who has been training in Florida with Sudsy Monchik and Veronica Sotomayor and has been improving rapidly. Not enough to beat Barrios, but enough to put a scare into her.

– Look for a close 8/9 between Cristina Amaya and Ecuadorian veteran Muñoz Pazita .

– A fitting 5/12 matchup between long-time veteran rivals Paola Longoria and @Rhonda Rajsich in what could be Rhonda’s final int’l appearance. Her American rivals may start to knock her off the US National team.

– #4 Maria José Vargas over Ecuador’s Munoz.

– #3 Gaby over fellow Guatemalan Aguilar

– 11 @Erika Manilla vs #6 Montse Mejia , who literally just played yesterday. This seems like a defect in the seeding. Too early an exit for Manilla and this will cost the US in the Pan Am Games seeding with two female round of 16 exists.

– #7 Carla Munoz versus Bolivian vet #10 @Yasmine Sabja could be close

– #2 Natalia Mendez should cruise over Dominican Delgado.

Quarters:

– Barrios advances by whoever comes out of 8/9

– Longoria-Vargas. phew. Vargas took her out with no pressure in an LPRT event a few weeks ago, but Paola lives for IRF titles and moves on.

– Mejia-Gaby; another powerhouse meeting. They met frequently as juniors, but Montse owns their adult meetings. Mejia to advance.

– Mendez Munoz: Natalia has the advantage here.

Semis:

– Longoria over Barrios. Yes, Angelica has a recent win, but this is PARC not the pros.

– Mejia over Mendez; Montse outclasses the Argentine.

Final … Mexico vs Mexico again, and Montse continues her dominance over the rest of her female compatriots with her first int’l title.

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Men’s doubles preview:

The injury to Murray hampers Canada’s chances here and really opens up the bottom half of the draw for a Bolivian romp to the finals. From the top, expect Mexico vs USA to be action packed in the semis but for Montoya/Parrilla to advance.

In the final, i see Mexico topping Bolivia’s Moscoso/Carrasco.

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Women’s Doubles preview:

Team Guatemala has been playing really well lately, but nobody’s stopping Herrera/Mejia from winning this title together. Can team USA Michelle Key and @Erika Manilla make some noise from the top half and get to the final? We’ll see.

Mixed Doubles preview

Two powerhouse teams of top pros are seeded 1st and 2nd, and its hard to predict anything other than Mexico vs Bolivia final. The ladies player in mixed always dictates the winner for me, and I see Longoria outhitting Barrios on the right hand side in that final to power Mexico to another international mixed win.

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The IRT streaming team is in Guatemala doing the broadcasts, and lead IRF broadcaster @gary mazaroff is on the mike along with Alexis Iwaasa and others. Tune in all week for solid matches.

USA Racquetball Intercollegiates Recap

Congrats to John Dowell of the University of Missouri and to Annie Roberts of the University of the Pacific for taking Gold #1 Intercollegiate titles this past weekend at the 2023 USA Racquetball Intercollegiates championships.

This was the 49th edition of this event, dating back to 1973. Jerry Hilecher won the very first intercollegiate title, playing out of the same University of Missouri that Dowell does.

In the team competition, Oregon State was able to reclaim their overall title from Missouri, and thus tied Memphis State (now the University of Memphis) with 12 overall team titles in the competition’s history. Oregon State also took the Men’s title, while Missouri took the Women’s title.

IRT Shamrock Shootout Recap

Manilla wins the pro doubles in Chicago. Photographer Kevin Savory

Congrats to your winners on the weekend:

– Singles: @Conrrado Moscoso

– Doubles: @Andree Parrilla and Adam Manilla

Moscoso secures his 6th career win, tying him for 16th all time. He now has as many tier 1 victories as @Jerry Hilecher , Ruben Gonzalez and Drew Kachtik each had in their careers.

On the doubles side, Parrilla wins his 4th career pro title and Manilla his 2nd.

see https://rball.pro/vhp for a list of all Tourney winners.

R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=40557

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Lets review the notable matches in the Singles draw.

Singles Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/bqt

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In the 64s and 32s, absolutely no surprises.

The only upset by seed was in the 16/17 game between Carrasco and Cuevas, and no one was surprised by the 6,8 victory by the 17th seed. All sixteen round of 32 matches were two-game wins, zero tiebreakers, zero upsets. Lots of blow outs, and even those games that appeared like they were closer probably weren’t; if a player wins the first game 15-1 and then wins the second game 15-11 …. it’s not like the losing player suddenly “figured things out” as much as its likely “the winning player coasted.”

I mention these facts because this is a side-effect of going to a straight draw, which some lower level players have clamored for. Well, congratulations, you’ve gotten what you want. People are convinced that from a competitive level giving top players byes into either the 16s or the 32s was unfair to the rest of the tour; well, what you fail to realize is that these top players are there for a reason. Now instead of getting a more competitive match in the 32s against a player seeded closer to your ability, mid-20s seeds are forced to play IRT top 8 players and get crushed.

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In the 16s, we got nearly chalk, with 7 of the top 8 seeds advancing. Only in the 8/9 match did we get an upset, with Acuna taking out Manilla a week on from a reverse outcome in the same matchup.

– Montoya held serve against an improving Natera in a closer than expected game 9,14

– Moscoso was taken to breaker by his countryman Carrasco.

– Landa dropped the first game and held on for an 11-9 tiebreaker win against Carter

– Murray made a statement against Mar, winning 2,13 to move on in a match I thought would go the other way.

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In the Quarters

– Moscoso crushed Acuna 3,7

– Montoya topped Parrilla yet again, going breaker yet again. These two have been playing each other for so long, dating to Juniors and WRT, and now it looks like they’ll continue to do so on the pro tour.

– Portillo made fast work of Landa 2,9

– Jake crushed Murray 3,7 to continue to prove that he belongs near the top of the IRT.

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In the Semis

– Moscoso won a captivating match 14,14 over Montoya, the player who just topped him at the last event. Great racquetball.

– Jake ground out a come-back win over Portillo to move into another final.

In the Finals…. Jake will be kicking himself for this one. After taking a close first game, Jake had leads of 8-0, 10-5, and 14-10 and could not close out the match, as Moscoso hung around and avoided the mental checkout of game 2. The tiebreaker was neck and neck before Moscoso ran off points at the end to win 11-7, but for me the story was Jake letting a winnable one slip away.

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Points Implications of results

With no DLR, obviously this win puts Moscoso back on top of the tour. He should be about 150 points clear. The next event to expire was a DLR win, so he’ll have 400 points to defend when the tour returns.

No other changes in the top 10.

In the 11-20 range:

– Mar and Carter flip spots at 11 & 12

– Natera up to 14th

– Collins up to 15th

– Martel now in the top 16, which may be a tough spot for him because he’ll continue to run into #1 or #2 in the round of 16.

– Rocky and Kane are now 17 and 18 respectively.

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Doubles review

Match report in the PRS database: https://rball.pro/vy2

Parrilla & Manilla topped Montoya and Mar 10,10 to win the doubles title here.

@Andree Parrilla wins his 4th career pro title and Adam Manilla his second with an impressive win over the #1 Montoya/Mar team.

Parrilla has bounced around partners for a while on tour: he played most of last season with Portillo, but Lalo seems to have gone with a Team Dovetail connection with Acuna. It was looking like he had paired up with Murray for a bit (as Murray was dropped by Landa for DLR upon Beltran’s injury), but Murray picked up with Jake when Sam took the last few events off. This left Andree needing a partner again.

Manilla has been bouncing around too; he used to play mostly with Riffel, them being college buddies, but when Riffel stopped touring Manilla has needed a partner. In the past few Pro events Adam has played with Murray, Franco, Mercado, Fernandez, Jake, and even Horn going back to 2021. But none of these players are a reliable partner for him, either because of absences/stepping back from touring, or because they’re playing more regularly with someone else.

Maybe Manilla and Parrilla are the new solid pairing, given that they just beat the clear #1 team in the world.

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Men’s Open, other draws

– Natera took out Longoria in the final. Semis Martell and Migliore, who had an excellent win over Trujillo to get there.

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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, especially from broadcasters Favio Soto, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew

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Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…/

We will recap Intercollegiates tomorrow. The Warhawk IRT satellite is next weekend in Louisiana, then the next week starts the 2023 Pan American Racquetball Championships (PARC). This annual event takes on special importance this year, as it will be a qualifier for the Pan Am Games later this year in Chile.

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tags

International Racquetball Tour

IRT Shamrock Shootout Preview

Jake is the #2 seed; can he get an other tour win? Photo Kevin Savory 2020 USAR national doubles

Welcome to Chicago, and the famed “fishbowl” court at the Glass Court Swim & Fitness club in Lombard, IL. Its the 2023 38th Annual Papa Nicholas Coffee Shamrock Shootout Presented by Glass Court Swim & Fitness.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=40557

Two big news items from Chicago:

– #1 De La Rosa is not here. Instead, he’s in Austin playing in the PPA pickleball event. I just got done going on @Sudsy Monchik ‘s show talking about how DLR had a smooth ride to #1 based on his Fall 2022 results expiring … but not if he’s missing events in March. Look, this is probably a calculated decision on Daniel’s part, knowing that the pay at PPA events is better, knowing that he’s now representing Pro Kennex in both sports, and probably knowing full well of his game-plan schedule wise to ensure a year end #1. Just saying.

– This event has no qualifying; its a straight draw. This is the 3rd event in a row where the tiered qualifying has been abandoned, and this is being done at the request of a player suggestion. @Pablo Fajre and I have talked about this in the past; when he ran the WRT, he used straight draws, and there’s decent arguments to go back to a straight draw in the IRT now based on the size of the draws (small) and the concentration of talent at the top.

Top 20 players missing: after DLR, we still don’t have Mercado. Rocky hasn’t played a pro event since November, kane still hurt, and Franco misses another.

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Lets preview the draw. Here’s some notable qualifying matches that i’m looking forward to:

In the 32s, I don’t see anywhere where i expect an upset by seed, with the exception of the 16/17 match between Cuevas and Carrasco. But even that could go chalk. Longoria may give Montoya a push, or maybe you see Mendoza get points off of Collins, but there’s little chance otherwise for upsets in this round. In fact, I see a ton of absolute blowouts. #1 Moscoso versus a high school kid in the 32s? #2 Bredenbeck against a local amateur?

Not for nothing, this is one of the reasons given for going to protected qualifying to begin with. Lets take the #29 seed in this event: Victor Migliore. Assuming he wins his round of 64 match against Blase Zera, he sets to face #4 Parrilla in the 32s, almost certainly a loss. However, under protected top 8 qualifying we’ve had in place since 1999, Migliore would have played #20 Edwin Galicia in the “round of 64” (a winnable match?), to then play into #13 Trujillo in the “round of 32.” He would have more opportunities to get upset wins, which then lead to improved ran king and more prize money. Instead, with a straight draw? He loses in the 32s and probably gets zero prize money.

I know there’s lots of proponents for straight draws, but realize that straight draws are almost guaranteed to eliminate the kinds of close early round matches that we’ve come to enjoy.

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round of 16:

I don’t see a ton of upsets here: maybe 8/9 Manilla-Acuna will be close. Can Trujillo trouble Parrilla right now in the 4/13? i don’t think so. Unless Landa is still hurt, he should cruise past Carter.

The two best matches in the 16s are at the bottom: Murray-Mar and Jake-Martell. Mar took out Murray at the US Open and is my pick to move on here. Martell can get wins, but probably not against Jake based on the way Jake is playing.

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Projected Qtrs:

– Moscoso over Manilla

– Montoya over Parrilla: Rodrigo has Andree’s number right now.

– Portillo over Landa: Even at 100% this is close, and I’m guessing Landa is still not 100% so i’ll Pick Lalo here.

– Mar over Jake: this is the tough one. Jake has been playing so well, but Mar handled him easily the last time they played (last Sept). This could go either way.

Semis:

– Moscoso over Montoya: Rodrigo got him in Minnesota, i think Conrrado flips the script with the faster courts in Chicago. This is the real “final” for me with DLR in the draw.

– Mar over Portillo; similar game styles, Mar the classier player.

Finals;

– Moscoso over Mar.

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Doubles review

I like chalk to the semis. The “final” again comes early, with Montoya/Mar taking out Moscoso/Landa in the semis. On the bottom, Murray/Bredenbeck power their way over Manilla/Parrilla. In the final #1 team continues to win.

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Look for Streaming in the regular places; follow the IRT on Facebook and sign up to get notifications when they go Live. Look for Favio Soto, Pablo Fajre and the IRTLive crew all weekend on the mike, calling the shots!

International Racquetball Tour